noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A New World bird, common nighthawk (Chordeiles minor).

   "bullbats peened overhead and dived on roaring wings."

2. 2
   mainly nocturnal North American goatsucker wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

nighthawknighthawkmosquito hawknightjarnightjar

Example

More examples

"bullbats peened overhead and dived on roaring wings."

Etymology

bull + bat; so called from the loud noise it makes while feeding on the wing, in the evening.

Related phrases

new world

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.